


Ancient Ice, New Flames (interlude)

by FionasEmbrace



Category: Dead Space
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-17
Updated: 2014-12-17
Packaged: 2018-03-01 21:11:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2787923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FionasEmbrace/pseuds/FionasEmbrace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After crash-landing on the surface of Volantis, Isaac Clarke and John Carver come to know two new companions. Among the other dangers here, Carver is preyed upon by ghosts of his past, while Isaac is trapped by his uncertain sentiments toward Carver. The search for a missing ship component leads them into a dangerous underground hideaway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ancient Ice, New Flames (interlude)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Ancient Ice, New Flames](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1932033) by [AmazingAwesomesauce](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmazingAwesomesauce/pseuds/AmazingAwesomesauce). 



> I got the okay from AmazingAwesomesauce to contribute a fifth chapter to Ancient Ice, New Flames. I independently wrote this chapter and have been dying to share it out, although the content hasn't yet been approved by him and so there is nothing 'official' about this. Depending on what I hear back, I may change this dramatically or remove it altogether.
> 
> Full credit of the concept of Ancient Ice, New Flames goes to AmazingAwesomesauce. 
> 
> In the version of Ancient Ice posted at FF.net, the story leaves off at chapter 4. This continues off from there, as chapter 5.

"About the Marker visions. When you get them- how..." Isaac searched for the right word. "how **real** are they?" 

Inwardly, Isaac was thinking of something very specific and vivid. The two of them in front of the ship interface, barely alive, risking everything to escape the CMS Terra Nova. The shift into overdrive and the fear that neither of them would make it out. An exhausted Carver, halfway out of his military RIG. In this world, nothing mattered, and he remembered throwing himself at Carver, forget the consequences. The images of Carver, holding him down, making love to him. It wasn’t just physical. In the midst of it all, beneath the blood and grime and the life constant life endangerment on that ship, was a sign, perhaps, bringing them closer. And in that vision was their declaration of love for one another. It was so surreal. Whether it was a marker-induced vision or something else entirely, he didn’t know any more. He couldn’t afford to think about it any more.

"I dunno. Why’s that important?"

He had to keep a level head about this whole thing. He had to. And yet, he needed to know. If the visions were affecting Carver the same way they were affecting him, then it meant there was more to this than just the signals put out by the markers.

"Ever since the Telomere experiments, they’ve changed for me. It used to be really strange and distant, like another world. I almost can’t remember them in detail, it feels so long ago. But now, they’ve become more and more lifelike. Have you ever thought about whether it’s marker proximity on Volantis?"

"It’s possible. Although, the stuff I keep seeing... It’s different visions, but it’s always the same basic thing."

"Necromorphs, then-"

"Real horrible shit."

"It keeps happening, here?"

"Yeah. I’m not comfortable talking about it, to be honest."

Carver acted a bit less cold to him now than he used to, after everything that had happened, but still- he would pick his battles. Better to just drop it. "Oh. Sorry for asking." 

They said good-night. Carver went through the door from before, leaving Isaac alone next to all of the ship parts.

If they had someone with the expertise, they could cobble together a new component core out of what was left over. It was possible. But it was beyond Isaac’s ability and inconceivable for anyone else. And this wasn’t some windshield wiper that could be haphazardly taped on. Their lives depended on having something that worked properly, and now there was no other alternative than to venture back into the complex in search of the missing component. The others knew that, and trusted Isaac. It didn’t make the situation any better.

First being stranded. Now, this. And the way to escape was so close in hand. Isaac stared around the floor, enumerating all the spare parts, considering his options. He was comfortable here alone, knowing that the other three wanted nothing to do with him right now. Everyone was exhausted. He wanted to get to safety, and to get both Ben and David safely back home. Aside from that, he hated seeing Carver like this, and wanted to convince the other man that they’d make it work somehow. The tension was clear now that their lives were ever so strongly at risk. It was difficult having any hope going forward. Still, this was not over. The part they needed had to be somewhere- Isaac wanted to believe it. They hadn’t travelled this far only to give up, now.

In the makeshift bed, Isaac closed his eyes. He hoped for another night where the visions might leave him in peace. Instead of being preoccupied with that, now it was their ship problems. Of fucking course. The part might not be here. It might not be in the next complex over. Volantis was vast, and they had not ventured very far near the cliffs. From the bed, he caught a glimpse of what was beyond this part of the room. Isaac gazed through, past the vents, at one of the airlocked windows. He still remembered. In the snow, barely visible over the horizon, there was indeed another mouth to the Volantis industrial complexes. There had to be a million of these, and this one was like the others. One that had not been in years, whose walls were so thick they shut out the cold and daylight. One whose contents no one, including Isaac, really knew. 

It wouldn’t be today. But they could set out once again, as soon as tomorrow.

* * *

Ben had caught a faint glimpse of it on the way here. It consisted of a sizable metal service reservoir with a ladder up the side, and a couple small fenced-in buildings. There were structures like this back on the Lunar Colony, and back on Earth. They were designed for mineral separation by mining companies, or for conversion of large amounts of energy for the public system. The massive tank containers and cylindrical reservoir served this purpose, at the cost of serious space efficiency. Nowadays, these were terribly outdated. They continued to exist, at least on the Lunar Colony, in areas where the industrial zoning was cheap, and there was no incentive to modernize. On Volantis, human development stagnated once the Necromorph outbreaks were in full swing. Structures like these were the poor remains left behind.

It wasn’t long before they found it. The grey shroud in the dust. It came into focus as a massive energy conversion structure, with the huge tank they caught a glimpse of before. A large, rusting, metal door shielded the dark, ancient building from the blistering cold outside. The howling winds could be heard, even from inside. 

"You figure this is it?" David shouted through his RIG and the loud windstorm.

"I’m not promising anything," Isaac said. After all, being ‘that guy’ with ‘the plan’ all the time, wasn’t something he signed up for. 

"Shit. Door’s busted shut." Grasping the handle for leverage, he wedged a boot under the bottom so to start excavating more of the doorway. As they cleared out more of the snow, it was obvious where the control was ruptured. Ben examined the lock mechanism on the door. It was very much like the other one, black metal with bright yellow decals, with one automatic operation mode and a keypad override. There was something that resembled half of a "Deus Enum... " with a logo, implying some affiliation with the Sovereign Colonies Armed Forces, but they sponsored all kinds of development on Volantis and this structure could have really belonged to anyone.

Isaac tried at the door and the override, but it wouldn’t open for love or money. 

The brutal wind charged on and on, hindering his ability to get a good look at anything. Carver went to a nearby pile of wreckage, poking around. Isaac brushed the last of the snow off of the control, and caught a glimpse of melted-and-solidified metal. With the help of the RIG optical, it all came together. It wasn’t simply frozen shut, like he would have expected. Clearly, something strange and cataclysmic happened on the inside. The solid steel had melted down the door frame, catching on the airlock, then cooling and solidifying to fuse the seams together. "The sealing on the back has recesses here. Can we puncture it, somehow?"

Carver was way ahead of him, and had already come back with a makeshift metal prying rod. Isaac said, "I’ll take that as a ‘yes’." Carver said something affirmative that no one could really hear, muffled by the RIG. Piece by piece he broke down the door. Isaac and David looked at each other, wondering if they should step in and help, but by the time it occurred to them it was too late and it didn’t matter. The sharp metal wedged straight through the door, miraculously enough. Carver pushed down and sideways, using it as a lever to try and pry the remainder open. Isaac stepped in and pushed on it at the same time. Finally, the seams gave in, the pry-bar was nearly bent all the way back, and the whole door was plunged out of the frame. 

"Alright," Isaac said, impressed.

"Let’s go." Ben said, and Carver stepped into the airlock chamber. The backside of the door matched Isaac’s impressions of it. The melted components, and the lock. What happened here must of have been some sort of electrical fire. The contents of this room were smouldered to the point of being unrecognizable. 

Daylight flooded the chamber for the first time in years. Isaac half-expected to see bats or vermin in a place like this, but honestly, what sort of life could possibly sustain itself here. The one visible hallway leading out hence was a large one, wide enough for small vehicles. It stopped sharply into pitch blackness.The power was down. Familiar story. All four of them switched on the flashlights connected to their RIGS and went on through. 

They walked past the rubble and remnants of melted machinery. From here, they could see several chambers off into the distance. Each separated by lockable doors permanently fixed open. It could have been some sort of quarantine system no longer in use. Isaac had seen something similar before aboard the Ishimura. The generator cables lining the floor, the broken display panel on the wall. The technology of this place looked to be about the same, too. It would all have been perfectly normal, except all of that was from around twenty years ago. The years dragged on and on, leaving places like this fixed in space. It was unbelievable how much time had gone by since all of this started. Isaac didn’t like being reminded of it.

Then, a noise. Ben glanced around. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?", David said.

"Some kind of scraping noise."

Their voices echoed through the dead hallways, one after another. No one had this place mapped out, really. Anything could lie ahead. There could be Necromorphs, there could be nothing. Isaac could say one thing for sure- that Marker presence might not be far away. He felt the sharp, fleeting pain near his temples- the same one as before. He supposed Carver felt it too, although he said nothing about it.

"I stepped on those wires, over there, when we were walking-"

"No, not that. It was from somewhere- I think- underground."

"We are underground. You mean under here?"

Ben paused again. The noise was, indeed, coming from something several floors down below."When you were talking just now, there it was again."

"I didn’t hear it."

"We gotta keep moving." Carver said.

They pressed on, passing through one silent hallway after another. No electricity. No signs of life. But there was something. Isaac could still feel it- that same terrible, frenzied feeling. He kept it firmly to himself because he didn’t know how to properly articulate what it was, and there was no sense in raising alarms for no reason. If he had to guess, it was Necromorph presence. It was hard to shake.

David caught a glimpse of something over on the far wall and asked if the others saw it. They brought their flashlights to it. 

"Well, I’ll be." Carver said. It was a detailed map of the facility. There were each of seven levels and one holding area, with schematic diagrams of some of the machinery. "Isaac, do you know where the generator would be? And maybe a vehicle hangar, if there is one."

"Let me read it." It was in a different format than Isaac was used to, so it took time. In the meantime, David captured an image of the map to his RIG computer memory, and transmitted it to the others. Isaac always found situations like this to be funny- anyone else was fully capable of reading it. It was in English. Everyone assumed that because he was the engineer, some architectural diagram would make any more sense to him than anyone else. It’s not like he was an architect, he never learned jack shit about that. Oh, well. 

"There should be a generator here, one level below. We don’t need to bother with the other levels. It’s not strictly necessary, but I really recommend we try and get the generator online before bothering with the hangar. There are going to be powerlocks on anything and everything, doors and objects. If we can just unlock them conventionally, we’ll have a much easier time."

"So there is a hangar, then."

"Yeah." The smallest glimmer of hope. Somewhere that they could find the part they needed. "It’s on this level, but all the way at the opposite side."

They took off in the direction of the generator console. 

That feeling again. Something didn’t seem right.

"Guys... Is the floor meant to slope downward like this?" The hall was indeed like a ramp, uneven enough for it not to look deliberate. Then, they stopped. Their flashlights picked up an abrupt edge to the floor. Someone, or something, had torn a gigantic hole all the way through this story, plunging everything nearby downward as well. The drop-off was steep and pitch black as far as they could see from here. Cautiously, they approached it, and saw what was down below.

"No. This can’t be..." Isaac saw it clearly now: those red, entwined prongs. The massive contraption, forged by aliens, covered in their language. The familiar headache, and sense of impending delirium.

"The Marker. This might have had something to do with what happened here." Ben said.

"I say we go down there and destroy it." Carver replied.

"Isaac?"

"...Sure." They looked at him. No one had quite had the level of torment because of these things, like he had. If anyone were to put a stop to them, it was him. "Yeah. Let’s go."

The floor was recessed, all the way to the end. The drop, as menacing as it looked from far away, was only a few feet. One by one they climbed down. Some stray cabling paved the way to the obstruction in the middle of the floor. 

And there it was. The red statue in all its glory, and as advertised, there was something powerful and unexplainable drawing Isaac and Carver towards it. 

In fact, it was the closest to a Marker than he had ever been.

The symptoms, this time, were out of this world. Especially for Carver- the pounding in his head left him very near doubled over, ugly spots all over his vision. 

Carver knew what this was like. It always started with the same symptoms. It was all happening again, now. He was locked into the dream world and everything disappeared. No pain, no spots, nothing except this horrible vision in front of him. All that was left was a shift. Like before he felt disconnected from his body. He wanted to fight this, and to tie himself back down to reality. It just wasn't possible. He wasn't here. 

The others wanted to help Carver. Ben tried to shake him out of it, but it was no use. Isaac especially knew how this normally went down. He knew how these moments came and went, and it was likely better to simply give Carver some space. There was nothing they could do short of demolish the marker right away. 

They considered their options. The Marker should be destroyed, but it didn’t necessarily require power to be restored to the facility since they still had the lights on their person. They settled on a plan of having Ben and David work together to break down the Marker, while Isaac was to go to the controls to get the generator back online. This ought to give Carver enough time to get his head back in the right place.

For Carver, it wasn’t that simple. This was no ordinary vision. His body kept still. His mind was out to lunch.

Isaac found the place where the controls were severed, and there was a clear way to reroute them. He pulled out some solder material and electrical tape he kept in his gear. The main power source was shot, but there was a secondary one on solar electricity that still worked. It would be enough to divert the local grid to that. Meanwhile, Ben and David started to break down the Marker, one small piece at a time. It was a worthwhile effort even though they lacked proper tooling. The thing was invulnerable to most ordinary blunt impacts and bullet-fire. All the same, the plan was in motion.

Until they heard a noise. 

It sounded all throughout the control room, and resonated in Carver’s head. The blaring noise. The red illumination. The lure of unexplainable energy. It hit every time he and the Marker were brought close once again. It wasn't often he encountered something like this- something which made him genuinely afraid. 

No.

That voice. "John- don't give up on us. You can't." The horrible static was the voice of the Necromorph ghost. Something dreamy and sinister- it bellowed down from somewhere above, unseen. "Not again, John. I already know what happens, now. Do you?"

There was no time to react. The noise which was once below, then scampered off to one side, then travelling through the vents. It came soaring down from the rafters. Ben recognized what it was. The heaving mass of fused, infected bodies comprised this Necromorph, no longer independently recognizable. The demon of solid muscle towered over them, massive enough for a mid-sized vehicle. The lumbering weight of its tough exoskeloton, immense limbs, thick trunk and muscle composition, somehow, did not encumber this thing at all. Rather, it was one of the fastest species that had ever been cataloged. While this Necromorph was capable of more enlightened forms of reasoning compared to the rest, it behaved like a dumb animal whenever it smelled human blood, or an inkling of body heat. It sensed the four of them through layer upon layer of steel and cement comprising the floors and walls of the facility. Upon locating anything alive, it tore straight into them. In all likelihood, it could have been several miles and structures away. These creatures were designed to seek out non-Necromorph life at all costs, for consumption and to use their biomass for reproduction. It smelled out the four of them, especially owing to the presence of the Marker. 

The brutal Necromorph plunged its whole self toward Ben, head first toward him. He lined himself behind a pillar, such that the creature missed him and instead hurled itself into the adjacent circuitry wall. There was barely enough time for him to ready the stasis firing mechanism. He shut one eye, aimed carefully, deployed it. Nervewracked he watched the shot. It had to be the slowest thing in the world- it seemed that way, as the sweat dripped down and he held his breath. 

It connected. 

The chaos in the room did nothing to stop the ghosts climbing out of the Marker, unseen by anyone else. Nothing could bring Carver out of this vision. He was tightly locked away, tangled up in the signals bearing down on him. It was all the others could do to protect his prone body as the Necromorph rampaged through.

David steadied his rifle. The creature flung itself savagely into the far end of the room, and the circuitry wall served to stifle the its chase. Severed electrical wires sparked and sent a powerful charge all the way through. The force drove some metal shrapnel, flaming hot, away from the wall dancing up into the air. It lashed out toward David but was repelled by the shielding on his RIG. The wires continued to short. They remained connected to their power source. It unleashed a flame tongue and more sparks. That electrical charge alone was surely enough to kill a human. Fortunately for David and Ben, they were far enough away, and out of its reach. To the creature it posed as little more than an inconvenience. And it emerged back out of the wreckage. And it clamored back toward them.

The very moment it came back into view, David unloaded a few rounds at its midsection. The automatic fire stayed engaged and there was another bullet, then another, and another. He tried his damndest to keep his aim on the thing. It could move around rapidly, much faster than its size would suggest. It started moving and then it was nigh impossible. 

Standard-grade firearms weren't enough. Most of the bullets bounced off. The few that stayed lodged in its flesh did little to faze the creature. Its thick organs were covered by the exoskeleton and impenetrable. Shit. David would have wanted to use a cutting weapon but it was impossible to get close enough. It was all he could do to stay out of biting distance. There was one RIG and only several feet of air separating him from certain death. The bullet fire not only failed to subdue him- no, it failed to even attract the interest of the monster. It made a horrific noise, for no apparent reason. It ignored him entirely. Single-mindedly, it turned its attention toward Ben.

Carver heard the whisper of words, of promises from the ghost. He wanted to believe that it was all true. It was enticing if anything. They shared so many distant memories together. There was only the two of them, and silence, and stillness. They gazed into each other's eyes like it was still real. Like nothing had changed. Carver never had simple moments like these anymore. It didn't even seem like that long ago that they were all together. She would race him, right to the ends of the Earth. 

The electric shock worked to subdue the brutal Necromorph. Not for long enough. Bleeding, it savagely threw itself in Ben's direction like a rabid animal. David unloaded a full clip into the creature's back but the flesh there was insensible. Even with small munitions lodged in the thing's back it wouldn't stop. Finally it closed in on Ben, who was backed into a corner. He checked the stasis. Naturally, there was none left. Fuck everything. In that split-second moment, he could have sworn he made eye contact with the other man, as if to get some inking of what to do. There was barely time for even that. The brute swiped out and grabbed Ben by the collar, lifting him off the floor. Propelled backward but trapped by the wall, Ben felt like this could be it. 

The thing continued to stare and drool at him. It was frightening, for reasons beyond the obvious ones. The way it looked at him... He expected it to start now. Being eaten alive by one of these devils. Suddenly, the Necromorph jerked back around, distracted by the bright lights of David’s rifle, switched onto a mode which had a laser. It changed its mind and tore straight toward the rifle. In this moment, Ben deployed a razor saw, his last resort, straight at the Necromorph’s legs. The demon only barely reached David, and collapsed onto him. He was still in reach of those jaws. Ben’s heart stopped- he didn’t know whether the creature had bit into the other man.

David reeled backward. The blood poured onto his body. 

It was not his. 

The terrible creature split apart, limb from limb, bottom to top. The controlled rotary razor was enough to sever its limbs completely, and fatally. Ben noticed that it wasn’t his weapon.

"Isaac!" The engineer was off to the side of the room, and had somehow launched the weapon. It was a miracle. No sooner had Ben said this, the demon flesh started collapsing down, piling up on the floor. Necromorph blood was well known for being poisonous, and sometimes corrosive. His suit protected him against it, but who could say to what extent. He quickly stepped aside to be freed of it, and joined Ben and Isaac. 

The brutal Necromorph was vanquished. Still, something wasn’t right. They heard something.

A creaking, coming from below. 

Ben looked down at the floor. The cracks started forming, faster than they could do anything. The building was clearly damaged, and this scuffle with the brutal Necromorph pushed it over the edge. There was no time to even say anything- they simply looked at one another. 

The floor gave in completely. 

There was only rubble, and broken trusses, and silence. Isaac and Carver found the strength, finally, to stand up. Their RIGs were equipped to absorb shock and had dampened most of the falling impact, but they were left not knowing where in the hell they were. Based on how long it took, they must have fallen several stories through. 

"Ben?! David?!" No answer. there was simply no sign of them. "Come in?" He tried the COM on their gear.

"Shit."

Their surroundings looked much the same as before. A grey, industrial chamber with huge pillars and some laboratory carts strewn about. Isaac gazed up at the ceiling. Somewhere, through that burst hole, was the Marker. In some respects, they had a few moments of solace, here. But he knew that the Marker still lay up, ahead, beckoning.

"Isaac, do you see that?"

On the far side of the room, they saw the hallway leading out. It might be exactly what they needed. And now that Isaac had already re-activated the generator, it should be fully operational. "The elevator." Carver said. 

"Did you see where Ben and David went?" He shook his head. "Fuck!"

"We’ll find them." 

They went into the small chamber. It only went down, not up. Of course. But, the only way was forward. And who knows, they might be able to find a direct route to the hangar from here. With a moment of wordless understanding from Carver, he pushed the button.

Despite the Marker still remaining here, with no obvious Necromorph threats around, it appeared to be safe. Isaac helped Carver up to his feet and coaxed him into the elevator. 

While Isaac toyed with the interface he considered the reasons why the Marker would have this kind of hold on Carver, now, but not him. He supposed these things were more complicated than anyone could explain, with the Necromorph data they had. He wished there was something he could do for the other man. He looked rough. Isaac keyed in the override, as Carver stayed there at the side, undisturbed, but with his head in his hands. The few stories weren’t enough to immediately separate him from the Marker. The world was barely slipping back into reality. Only barely. This had to stop soon, or it would cost both of them their lives.

* * *

Elsewhere, the tiled floor was bare, except for the two of them. Nothing. This must have been some sort of laboratory, no longer in use by anyone. Ben and David awoke on the floor. Without their RIGs, this would have been it for them. Ben shouted for Isaac. Carver. No answer. The room appeared safe, for now. There were no other signs of Necromorphs, and no signs of corruption. They escaped the confrontation alive, but they now had no idea where they were. David pulled up the building schematic downloaded to his computer. There was a library, janitorial storage... The medical facility was not far.

The chamber to which they plummetted was in the same part of the complex as its personal facilities. There were large expanses for equipment storage and fuel tanks, occupying a vast, closed-off, dangerous space- but those were on the other side. To their fortune, Ben and David found the small medical facility not too far away. David's wound continued to bleed. Ben had some minor scrapes. Their injuries were not serious enough to be life-threatening, but they would be better off doing something about them.

"Let me help you with this." 

"It's okay, I got it." 

David disengaged his RIG and carefully started to remove himself from it, while Ben got the medical supplies together. He had already climbed out of his RIG leaving him with his street clothes including a small holstered sidearm. David got it about halfway down before having to stop due to his muscles refusing to co-operate. It felt like his limbs were no longer tied to his brain and it was difficult to move. He kept quiet about it although it freaked him out a little. Somehow, that creature pierced through the outer shielding of the RIG, leaving him only protected by the inner lining. From the impact up until now, he felt a wet, strange sensation running through his shirt. He may have thought it to be sweat, or blood, but his own injuries didn't seem serious enough. Only now did he have a proper look at exactly what it left behind.

The blood. Black substance, the Necromorph lifeblood, had soaked right through the left breast of his jacket, through the shirt and undershirt beneath. The creature was bleeding at the time of its attack on him, and left this behind. He looked down at it. It had a different consistency from human blood and seemed to stick in place. 

"You all right?" Ben was in the middle of cleaning off his glasses, and put them back on, then looking back at David frightened him. 

"Don't feel so well..."

"Shit!" He saw everything- the alien blood. The tattered clothes. "Can you breathe okay? We ought to be able to get this sterilized." Here he was, sounding like a medical professional. It was far from the truth. But at this rate, treating the wound here wasn't bound to make it any worse. He stood a chance because he hadn't sustained too badly of a wound, minimizing the chances that the blood would actually mix with his. But, there was always the possibility that contact was enough. Ben pulled the peroxide solution off of the shelf and started toward him.

David reeled back, his body trembling and still halfway out of his RIG. He gasped in air and said nothing. As Ben approached him, David held up a hand, wordlessly, as if to ask him to stop, or stay back. So, if only reflexively, he did. But shit, it looked bad.

Something was different, medically. Ben knew this sort of thing was possible, but it was something he had never seen before. It was the contact with Necromorph hemolymph, its blood. Ben was spared because he was not attacked by that Necromorph directly, and it loses its potency quickly so anything left on the floor or objects now would be unlikely to affect him. The perforation in David's gear was enough to admit live blood through and that was enough. In humans, the Necromorph strand stimulated various kinds of panic responses. Heightened adrenaline. A special kind of delirium. Of course, the symptoms varied from person to person. But a prolonged response for any normal human would risk heart failure. There were theories that the physical responses of humans to this blood mimicked the response it had in Necromorphs, and that it had some part in their behavior. But, there was no knowing, really.

He was torn between wanting to help David, and the man's apparent wish to be left alone. Perhaps, there was nothing to worry about. That instant, the choice was made for him.

It was inhumanly fast. David launched himself away from the wall, single-minded, straight toward him. The remaining torso part of his gear was carried along in tow. His eyes were glassy, pupils dilated as if affected by a drug. With a will that wasn't fully his own, he grabbed Ben roughly and shoved him down. Ben tried clawing his way out of it- in an effort to subdue him, David struck forward undextrously, which landed across his shoulderblades. "What are you doing?!" The impact knocked Ben's glasses to the floor. Before he was able to try and retrieve them, David climbed on top of him and held him down. 

Normally, David's upper body strength was about average, nothing to write home about. There was something changed, something alien about him. Now possessed a bizarre type of strength. He was totally oblivious to his surroundings and honed in on the younger man in front of him. His green eyes empty, cold and distant, when he gazed at Ben it was as if he was gazing into nothing. Ben had seen something like this before, but never from him or any human. No- it was just like that brute Necromorph. Blood rushed through David's muscles as they seemed to pulse and come to life.

Ben was thrown back, wide-eyed, unsure what to do. He was torn apart. On the one hand, he wanted to put a stop to this- his own safety was on the line. On the other hand, he didn't have it in him to kill or maim David. Shooting him would be guaranteed to do one of those things. Maybe there was some other way. It just wasn't something he could accept.

Salivating, David urged Ben down along the floor, grabbing him by the collar. There was a struggle, but there was no way Ben could overpower him and get control of the situation. The way the man acted was exactly like that Necromorph. David grabbed the man's shirt roughly. Ben grabbed him by the wrist but it was impossible to pry him away. In one swift action, he ripped the shirt apart. Ben was too much taken by surprise to even scream. The red-haired man stared, ravenous, at his exposed collarbone with a ferocious look, as if he were going to take a bite. If he didn't know better, he'd think the possessed man was about to destroy him, or eat him alive. And then he looked down. The same thing stimulating the bloodflow to his muscles was doing the same thing... everywhere. There was a noticeable tent formed down in his pants. What the fuck. Ben knew this had to be a tie to that other Necromorph. He saw the way it looked at him. It was the same way the human in front of him gazed at him now. That Necromorph had certain brutal instincts that weren't limited to murder.

It could very well be, David was overtaken by the demon and there was no turning back. If he were in his right mind, Ben should just shoot him and be done with it. The gun, a sidearm, was right there, at his side. It was loaded. His hands were free.

But he couldn't. David brought his hand over Ben's face, as if to grab it, but his hand became limp and just stayed there. His muscles gave in- finally, he collapsed on top of him. While he was not terribly heavy, all the weight was focused on one spot and it left Ben winded and dazed. David's head rested right beside Ben's collar. He just stayed there like dead weight. Time passed, and Ben didn't know what to do. It was hugely fortunate that David was still alive. He could feel the other man breathe, feel the heat radiating into him. He didn't know what was going to happen- whether he would lapse back into the Necromorph blood's hold on him. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see pale lashes, and saw that his eyes blinked. Ben could feel a tiny amount of drool getting on his shoulder. Very gently he coerced the man off of him and beside him on the floor, so that he was laying on his back. David's eyes were open now as he stared blankly at the ceiling. His fingers twitched and his hand opened and closed every so often. Ben adjusted his torn shirt, not yet torn clean in two, into something that would still stay attached to his body.

Ben stayed on the floor, not a little dazed. He would have to hope and pray that the blood's contact with him wouldn't have the same effect. The bigger priority was containing the poison. He took the sterilization solution from before, and some bandages, and cleared it off of David's chest, leaving a bandage there. There was a shallow welt where it made contact, and a bruise, but no other sources of infection. Finally, David sat up. It looked physically painful for him. "What... What in the hell happened?" He cradled his own head in his hands in pain.

"You don't remember."

"I remember that huge Necro. We destroyed it, didn't we? After that... Somehow, I'm here." Ben thought carefully about this. Maybe there was a time and a place. But not now. "It hurts like a mother."

"You were out pretty cold." Lying was out, but there was no harm in a careful set of omissions. 

"This is your work, isn't it?" He indicated the bandage. David shifted to a more natural sitting position, something that looked very difficult for him. His muscles felt weak, like he had just run a marathon yesterday. It was like that all over. Ben stayed beside him, relieved that he could return to normalcy. He briefly took hold of his shoulder, a friendly gesture. Only now, did he look more like his normal self. "I appreciate your helping with my injuries."

"No trouble."

It looks like the blood's effects had worn off. There was enough time elapsed since it was emitted from the creature, until now. It lost its efficacy. Ben counted his lucky stars. But, moments like these- knowing what the Necromorphs were capable of- left him afraid for the future. 

He supposed he should be able to hear some of the chaos happening to this place. They had no way of communicating with Isaac and Carver, here. There was always the possibility they would encounter other Necromorphs with this same attribute. The infectious blood. Perhaps, they already had. While he patched up his and David's remaining wounds, he listened. He wondered how much time they ultimately had. This medical room, the space above and below, and the connecting hallway were all quiet.

* * *

Carver clung to the elevator wall, sweating profusely. While he was immersed in it, the vision stilled him, preventing him from doing anything to fight back. Even now that the alien structure sustaining the illusion was further away, coming back to reality wasn’t an instantaneous thing. He heard the voices coming from every which way, feeling powerless before them. He wanted to say 'goodbye'. The words wouldn't escape his body. But in his heart of hearts, he accepted it. Damara, we need to leave. 

The elevator started moving. Somehow he had the presence of mind to follow Isaac into it, but he was practically on autopilot. He still didn't know where he was. The one wall vanished. Was that always here? Blurry stories shifted together down to what was visible below. Could he really step right outside? It was a mirror into something so familiar. The invisible wall stopped him from moving any further, but here it was, marking the border into some huge black airspace. It went on forever and he knew what this was. The black clouds could pick any likeness they wanted. He could recognize her person anywhere. He could almost reach out and touch the borderline. Carver pressed himself into the side of the elevator chamber, on the opposite end of the interface where Isaac was. He turned around and sank right back against the wall, staring out at nothing.

In his RIG, Carver continued to stand squarely and looked alert. Wordlessly he stared straight ahead. Past Isaac, past this elevator, into nothing. Something happened. Only, his hands went slack. His gun dropped loudly to the floor, and the sidearm followed. "Shit, Carver, are you okay?" Leaving them there, he stepped forward right past Isaac, not even acknowledging him. "What the hell?" Carver put both his hands up on the elevator wall, leaning against it intently, like a child looking at an aquarium. "Do you see something that I don't?" 

"Isaac, can we ever find it?"

"You should take it easy." He put a hand on Carver’s shoulder, trying to reassure him. It was just now that he snapped out of it.

"The Marker source." He used to believe that destroying the Markers themselves would be enough. That was then. This was now. 

"You’re good now, right?"

"Yeah." His eyes, everything, finally looked normal once more. He rubbed his temples a bit, and that was the end of it. Convinced that he was well again, he re-engaged his helmet. Isaac still had his on, as well. There was a chance, however slim, that the optical could show him signs of other life in the building. "Look, I need you to know something." The green illuminated visor of Isaac’s RIG stared back at him. "You don't need to lie to me, to make me think we'll get out of this alive. I've learned better than that. I've accepted it. I just need you to know that I want for us to be able to work together. "

"Just-"

"I really wish we could have met one another, under different circumstances." 

No, he really didn’t know what to make of this. Isaac wished he could be just as honest with Carver. All of the feelings he’d had since the dream of Terra Nova. It never really stopped.

He put his hand on Carver's shoulder. "No. We’ll get out of here, somehow." The elevator continued its path downward. "We will."

There was nothing to be heard, except for the motor and hydraulics driving the contraption down. Through the glass paneling around the corners Isaac could catch a glimpse of the vacant floors as they passed by. If they were lucky, this could be it. He felt cautiously optimistic that this section of the facility was left intact, through everything that had happened. Here there were no Necromorph sounds or talons chipping away at the door. He waited, unaware of the storm that was happening to him. 

"This is it. This is the bottom".

Reality was- what Carver saw, just now, changed things. The figments were something no one else could ever see or understand. What could be the final remnants of all the Marker-induced ghosts. Isaac sensed something was going on, but couldn't be sure. All the same, the engineer was fully intent on pushing his luck. He wondered if Carver ever even considered being with anyone else after what had happened. Goodness knows it took so long for Isaac to move on. If it happened, it happened.

"Say if you were to move on, and forget all of that- those visions you kept seeing- do you think it would change anything?"

"That's up to me, not you." Implying he saw no reason in discussing it with him.

"If you were to move on- from those visions, everything in Shroud 4, to me- what would you say?"

The chamber was dead quiet, just like he remembered.

"...Isaac?"

It was just like the dream. The RIG. The flickering lights. The gloves coming off. 

Isaac stepped in close to Carver's personal space, disengaged his helmet and looked him in the eye. 

Sure enough, he got his answer. 

Carver took both of Isaac's hands in his own. That was it. It was something sweet, and tentative. It was almost as if Carver was afraid of how the other man might react. His eyes looked the same, but his hands trembled. Isaac abruptly let go. That momentary sinking feeling hit Carver. What if he misread things? What if this was all one huge mistake? To him, Isaac was one curiosity after another. This whole thing was absurd, but fuck it.

It was gone just as quickly as it came. Isaac stepped forward and threw his arms around Carver and started kissing the side of his face. Putting his whole body weight in, it nearly threw Carver off. He was legitimately not expecting it. Carver's eyes shot open. He never considered that Isaac would be interested in him this way. They moved backward, putting Carver against the wall, out of the way of the control panel. Isaac held him suffocatingly close as he could. Carver put his hands on Isaac's shoulders, almost as if to push him away, but he just rested his hands there. Isaac clung to Carver like it was their last day on this planet. He felt like it was. 

"Is this really happening?"

Isaac didn't need to bother with giving an answer. He and Carver held one another, pressed up against the wall. Carver almost went for a kiss but couldn't bring himself to go through with it. Isaac held the back of the other man's head and kissed him all along the side of his head and neck. Being nearly the same height, it was easy to just bury his face in the man's collar. When he initially went for it, the RIG collar came up a bit high, affording him little more than a face full of metal and polymer material, moving higher he got some of Carver's ear. Then he kissed Carver full on the mouth. He didn't have any reservations about these things. When Isaac felt himself being kissed back, he knew the answer to his question. Carver held onto Isaac's gear and pulled him just as close as before. But the RIGs, naturally, prevented them from getting too close. 

Isaac messed around with the controls on his suit and switched it to manual disengage. Clumsier process than a re-suiting stall, but it worked and there was no time for that. The RIG came undone from around his shoulders and down his midsection, collapsing down into a stiff kind of jumpsuit halfway down his body. He shifted around and stepped out of it, discarding the gear to the side with the armaments. This left him in the street clothes he normally wore, some dark jeans with roomy pockets and a CEC insulated jersey. He honestly didn't know where they were both going with this. The RIG made things inconvenient so that was it. Carver, seeing this, decided to get out of his RIG also. The military habilments were a different model and much more complicated than Isaac's. While simple enough to put on, they were difficult to remove without robotic help. Carver switched his gear to free from connection, and Isaac helped him remove the parts the rest of the way. 

Unencumbered by anything they were pulled flush against one another, at the same place against the wall. The soldier claimed Isaac's mouth and groped his hands down the other man's body. At first, the way he grabbed at Isaac was a bit awkward. More than likely it had been a long time since he'd done this. It wasn't long before he was treating Isaac like he was some hot old flame. Carver pinned Isaac against the wall and held onto his waist. Isaac felt the man's body against his, and Carver's tongue entered his mouth. He full on frenched him as Isaac could feel Carver's muscles tense between them even through the layers of clothes, Carver's hand wandered from Isaac's hip over to his thigh pocket. All of it was enough to give Isaac a raging boner, concealed under all his clothes and restricted uncomfortably in his pants. Isaac on reflex grinded it against Carver's body. Carver looked down.

"Don't suppose you'd..." Isaac closed in, reached his hands up inside Carver's shirt. He murmered in his ear. "...help me out?" It was dawning on Carver, that this was going to go as far as it possibly could. Well, maybe. The way Isaac kept pressing his body against his- and the obvious situation he had tucked away- Carver got more than a little hot and bothered. Isaac stroked his hands up Carver's clothed dick and he could feel it. There was just no stopping now. Carver groped Isaac's ass and crotch and finally Isaac unbuckled his belt and unzipped it, because the discomfort was getting pretty extreme. Finally he pulled it out, feeling unfazed by the cool air in the room. Carver seemed nervous on some last-minute hangups. He really wanted to do it although it felt really foreign to him, for his own reasons. Tentatively he stroked Isaac's dick, almost too gently. Isaac thrust himself into the other man's hand. Even though it was a dry one, it was just too good and Isaac had to pull back so that he wouldn't come embarassingly soon. Carver looked down and watched Isaac undo the fly of his EarthGov military fatigues. Inwardly he wondered if Isaac had a thing for military guys or what. Maybe he would ask him, sometime.

Carver helped Isaac the rest of the way and pulled it out. Isaac was so turned on he was running hot and breathing heavily, and he got down on his knees and took it in his mouth. Carver let out a sharp exhale, not having expected this. Isaac took it just a small ways in his mouth but licked his tongue all over. It was all wet and dripped pre-come. Carver didn't try to shove himself into Isaac's face, he only raked his hand over Isaac's shoulders affectionately, and just muttered some unintelligible swear words. Then Isaac took it all in his mouth. Carver trembled under the other man's hands and mouth. The engineer tried taking it all in, but it was just too much and he started choking. He pulled back to catch his breath. It felt really smooth as Isaac jerked him off, while licking the tip and up the sides. By this point Carver was just as turned on as the other man and he would almost reach the point of no return. 

Isaac could tell. He stopped, and stood up. Carver was about to start jerking him off, but instead Isaac pushed their dicks together to jerk them at the same time. He loved the feeling of Carver right against him, and the wetness now made it perfect. Carver kissed Isaac full on the mouth, even though he could taste himself in it he just didn't give a fuck. He groped Isaac's ass and all over every corner of his body and involuntarily thrust himself against the other man. Isaac did it just how Carver liked, and lacked the self control at this point to go any slower. 

Isaac leaned into Carver's ear, whispering something he may have liked to be a very eloquent expression of intimacy though it was just some unintelligible sounds. He planted some sloppy kisses up Carver's neck while Carver just looked down and watched. They were both getting close and he just wouldn't let up. Carver's breathing grew ragged and sweat came down his face.

"F-Fuck!" Carver screwed his eyes shut and grabbed Isaac roughly. He would have normally had the courtesy to say something- utterly caught up in the moment he couldn't spare the brain cells for even that. Isaac felt the man's body stiffen up and the cock twitched up against his. He pressed further into it and stroked them all the way through. He felt like he was going to go crazy. Isaac looked down at his hand. He saw the other man’s seed. All of it ended up on his own member and Isaac's until it was dripping while he still jerked them. Carver couldn't believe what he was seeing, it looked pretty obscene. Isaac couldn't hold back any more. He felt like he was going to die. He stroked them as fast as possible and came immediately. He stuck his tongue into Carver's ear, pushed against him a bit aggressively, then started to tremble. It shot out of him and didn't feel like it would ever stop. His come joined what was already there, on his hand and staying smooth over both their dicks. There was so much, it dripped down to the floor. Completely spent, he looked down at his hand absently. Carver handed him a couple tissues from out of his pocket.

Carver held Isaac once again, and they were so wrapped up in each other it was easy to ignore the mess and everything else. They kissed and stayed wrapped up in one another and there was really nothing to say. The fact was, what happened was not just some physical favor. Carver was still digesting everything that had happened and Isaac didn't want to fuck this up. The soldier held him with all the tenderness as before and Isaac touched Carver's neck. The moments slipped away, as they finally caught their breath.

The lights flickered again. It hadn't seemed like there would be Necromorphs here, but it was possible. It was hard to move. They needed to get out of here.

Staying there like that, in the elevator chamber- everything on the outside didn’t matter anymore. Isaac felt something of warmth and innocence again, something like before all of this shit happened to him. Like back when he was a child, holding his favorite teddy bear. There were butterflies in his stomach. And it was different from the vision. He felt a closeness to Carver like he always imagined, but never thought would be real. He grew from all of the hardships he faced in Telomere, on the Ishimura, and here.

With some effort they put their RIGs back on and armed themselves. The power stayed on, but who could say for how long. Together, they left the chamber. They were not long separated from Ben and David, and now Isaac better knew the layout of the complex.

For the longest time, Isaac thought he would want to go back, change events, and live in a world where the Telomere Project never existed. Markers and none of it existed. He could go back to his nine-to-five job at the CEC. Life would be safe, tucked away in one of the colonies. Everything would be simpler. Yet, if none of it had happened, he would never have met someone like Carver. After being unwillingly flung from one suicide mission to another, he couldn't pretend any romantic ideas about protecting Earth or the colonies.

It was the same, how the events on Marker Shroud 4 changed Carver forever. He believed that he was above becoming a part of EarthGov's foray into uncovering the secrets of Necromorph biology- a piece in their puzzle.

But that was a long time ago.

* * *

The medical facility was attached to a long hallway, with many narrower paths leading out of it. The complex was much larger than they thought, since it extended underground, and this quarter alone splayed out into dozens of smaller rooms. They were afraid of venturing too far into any one of these places. Ben second-guessed whether this facility was really for mineral separation, and that alone. Even if it was their R&D sector here, something didn’t seem right. There were so many instruments and diagrams normally used for biological experimentation, not just the studying of minerals. If he didn’t know better, this was a front for something else entirely.

They found a number of staircases, not too far apart from one another. If they could make it back to the upper levels, they stood the greatest chance at finding Isaac and Carver once again. Although, nothing looked entirely familiar. The only landmark they saw was a sign, stained with blood and dirt, it was mounted in clear view along the side of the wall, reading ‘Administration’, with an arrow. It was something.

Elsewhere, Isaac and Carver found themselves all the way at the bottom. Despite power being restored to the complex, there was no light here. The problem was not electricity, it was that they were all shot. There was only the light from their visors and the small diode flashlights attached to their person. Worse yet, they discovered that the elevator malfunctioned, like everything else here, and ceased to open or call as soon as they exited it. The light they had was barely enough to get to the next hallway, where Isaac supposed the hangar might be. Perhaps he should not hope for even that. Wordlessly, they crept through the shadows. No signs of anything.

Until, Isaac’s light caught a glimpse of a face. He jumped back, and immediately took aim.

"What is it, Isaac?!"

Then, he saw the full scene. A human form, deceased. One of many. They were all of them frozen in massive, translucent canisters. "What happened here?"

"I don’t know. It’s creepy as shit."

Isaac came up close to one of them. He could clearly discern the man’s features. His lifeless hands. His uniform. 

"Do you see this badge? SCAF."

"Whatever the hell happened here, I don’t want to know."

They kept moving forward. They had to. There was one hallway, and then another, and another. Most of the ways out were closed off by rubble. Isaac didn’t even trust this area to be structurally sound. But sure enough, there was a door, right at what seemed to be the last dead end. Isaac opened it, and was about to step through, before Carver stopped him.

There was no floor. Only a drop. 

The door opened up into a massive holding cylinder, some hundred paces in diameter. It extended down below into pitch darkness, and high up above into the same. They shone the light down in attempt to get a better view, but it was no use. There was, however, the ladder. Right beside the door, an iron ladder, presumably for maintenance crews extended all the way up the tank’s height like some kind of terrible space elevator. Isaac and Carver looked at one another. They had to try it.

One wrong move- Isaac was first to go up- and he would fall to his doom. Underneath the gloves of his RIG his palms were sweaty and he tried to stay calm. Getting on the thing was practically a leap of faith. He planted on it with one hand, the rest of his body dangling. Carver watched in horror. Finally, Isaac regained his balance, got his bearings on the ladder and found it sturdy enough. Tentatively, he climbed upward, and extended out a hand to help Carver on. 

Carver made the same leap of faith. In this case the rung below his foot gave out, leaving him dangling by the hands. He regained control and climbed up higher where it was more sturdy. And that was it. One rung at a time, sometimes two, they made their way to the top. They were too full of nerves to say much of anything, and at any rate they needed to conserve their strength. RIGs, especially Isaac’s, were heavy and not really made for this kind of acrobatics. Isaac looked up. The ladder must go at least four stories high. Carver tried to keep his eyes forward too, but if he looked up he got an enticing view of Isaac’s ass. This was really not the time. But, he couldn’t keep himself from staring. Why hadn’t he acted on this sooner. Shit, and he was going to die here, without ever getting some of that. Yeah, this wasn’t the appropriate time to be thinking of this stuff. But damn if he didn’t want to be beneath Isaac on a ladder. It was mesmerising, really. If he had his way-

"Carver? You okay?"

"Y-yeah."

Should have tried it before. Now, the minutes went by, the vertical distance was endless, and both of their hands were blistered and aching. 

It was Isaac that first saw felt it. The cold. It felt wet, on his face. In these quarters, it might be a burst pipe or a drainage problem. He didn’t dare look up because it dizzied him. The infinite rungs upward looked like some hall of mirrors and made him nauseous. He tried to mitigate the nausea by disabling his visor, to better cycle the air. All the same, he was loath to give himself a false sense of hope. He didn’t need to look up. They landed right in front of his nose.

Snowflakes.

The vertical tunnel emptied, not back into the building, but into the sky. Isaac finally looked up, and saw the outside light. Volantis had something that resembled a sunset. They had long lost track of the time. The cold snowflakes kissed his nose and cheeks. He should know better than to hope for anything. But right here, maybe, they could find what they needed.

He didn’t even have to negotiate his way up to the top. There was an iron ladder by a ledge, a couple stories down from it. They painstakingly made their way to it, and drew the door open, leaving them in a neater hallway than the place they were in before.

"Power here, so that’s good... Do you know where this is?"

Isaac thought for a moment. "Not really. That’s something of a clue, though-" He indicated a sign on the wall- ‘Administration Offices’. With any luck, there could be some kind of building wide COM there, and Isaac could use it to try and locate the other two.

In the office, Ben and David had already found the COM and were just trying, with limited success, to get it back online. Suddenly, they heard noises coming down the hall. Ben trembled. They were not equipped to fight any more Necromorphs. He put an ear against the wall. It sounded peculiar, not like them at all. The source of the noise was scaling the hallways, coming closer. Finally, without warning, the door opened.

"Holy shit, you’re alive!" 

The odds were unbelievable. It was like seeing a ghost. The four of them, having survived the fall and the Necromorph attack, were re-united. Ben hugged Isaac, not really thinking about it, while Carver glowered at him.

Naturally, the impeccable stories of their survival, even with some very careful omissions, would have to wait. "Isaac, you’re going to want to see this." David showed Isaac the new, updated schematic.

"What is this?"

"I mapped out where the Marker was, relative to where we landed, and where we are now. See, it’s not actually that far. And if we stick to this side, there’s a better chance of it being structurally sound. We recovered all the building documents, here, plus some security footage of what this section looks like."

They agreed to try it- to make their way back to the Marker. Ben and David led the way. David still knew nothing of what happened earlier, and Ben planned to keep it that way for the time being. They had other priorities. 

And there it was. That same room, once more, just as empty as they left it. With the gaping, collapsed abyss right in the middle. The Marker. The same alien structure, no doubt on the verge of conjuring another demon horde. It pulled the two Marker-infected humans toward it, even now. The pain returned to Isaac and Carver, but especially Carver. And he thought it was over. The pain turned into a feeling of emptiness. It was too much. He collapsed down. Isaac asked if he was all right, but it was far beyond that, now. He shook Carver gently, and disengaged the man’s helmet. 

Carver’s actions were no longer under his control. It wasn’t the first time this had happened. For the first time, the alien spell exploited him to violence. Isaac panicked. Carver came straight at the man like a freight train. He looked terrifying in his RIG, even de-visored, and a stronger man than Isaac to begin with- like this, he was a force to be reckoned with. He slammed Isaac straight to the floor and he went down. Carver got on top of him- seemingly, with the intention to kill. 

Only now, did he have a chance to look into Carver’s eyes.

Red. They could have been welled up with blood. What this was, it wasn’t natural. They were-

David saw what was happening, and rushed over with the spent pulse rifle in his hands. There was no time for anything clever. With the butt of the gun, he hit Carver’s side, hard. The impact was enough to separate him from Isaac. David followed up by quickly hitting the butt of the gun against the back of Carver’s unprotected head, knocking him cold out.

Isaac remained on the floor, reeling. This would continue happening- not just to Carver, but likely, to him, too- until the Marker was taken out for good. If there was some way to uncover the secret of the Marker, he had to find it. 

Because the Marker presence never traveled alone. 

Because it was always the same illusion, of blood, of bones, of undead bodies. 

"Carver?!"

Until it was gone, they would follow him forever and ever. The welt on his head hurt, but the figment came into focus. He would recognize Damara anywhere. He keep telling himself, over and over, that the Marker took them. It told him that people "remember what we want to remember". Whenever he recalled those events, he was some third person, not even being there. Now, he wasn't so sure. It was right then and there, at the elevator, he thought he would never hear from them again. But they weren’t channeled by anything in his control. They were channeled by the Marker. 

It was speaking to him, even now. Soothing words, beckoning him to go over to them and Dylan to become whole. There were promises of their future, of some retreat away from this place, and of safety from the Necromorphs. 

Isaac stayed by his side. He intended to keep him back in the real world, no matter the price. The very same demons were capable of seizing Isaac- the same ones. He had these demons and no answers. If this was the sign of some oncoming alien blight, why would it choose to be installed onto humans? If it truly relayed instructions from another world, why was it implanted here? If there was any way for Carver to purge himself of the Marker infection, he didn't know what it was. If he could find out what the signs meant, he would know where it came from. The passage into an earlier time. Damn if he would let it happen again. And he felt so close to coming to grips with reality, when he was there with Isaac- it was really happening again. It meant everything was about to change.


End file.
